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  • ECIG_digital_daily_practice_paper_v3d1_2018_02_07

    Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Health, ? (?), 2018, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Health page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/HEA on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

    Accepted author manuscript, 318 KB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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The daily digital practice as a form of self-care: Using photography for everyday well-being

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/11/2019
<mark>Journal</mark>Health
Issue number6
Volume23
Number of pages18
Pages (from-to)621-638
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date7/04/18
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Interest in the connection between involvement in digital communities and well-being has increased as these communities become more commonplace. Specific models of interaction that affect well-being have emerged; here, we examine one of those models, termed ‘digital daily practice’. Digital daily practices involve a commitment to doing one thing – exercise, photography and writing – every day and sharing it online. Participants in these practices agree that they provide an unexpected benefit of improving well-being. This article makes an in-depth examination of one digital daily practice, photo-a-day, using a practice theory framework to understand the affordances it offers for well-being. We engage with the literature on well-being and self-care, critiquing its presentation of well-being as an individual trait. We present data from an ethnographic study including interviews and observations to highlight how photo-a-day as a practice functions as self-care and how communities are formed around it. Photo-a-day is not a simple and uncomplicated practice; rather it is the complex affordances and variance within the practice that relate it to well-being. We conclude that this practice has multi-faceted benefits for improving well-being.

Bibliographic note

The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Health, ? (?), 2018, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Health page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/HEA on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/